This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2001-257044 filed Aug. 27, 2001, and No. 2002-241389 filed Aug. 22, 2002, in the Japanese Patent Office, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to image forming apparatuses, program updating methods and recording media, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus which rewrites a program stored in a storage section by updating data, a program updating method for updating the program by the updating data, and a computer-readable recording medium which stores a computer program for causing a computer to update the program by such a program updating method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to a composite apparatus) has been developed which includes the functions of a plurality of apparatuses such as a printing apparatus, a copying machine, a scanner and a facsimile machine. The composite apparatus has a display section, a printing section, an image pickup section and the like provided within a single housing. In addition, the composite apparatus is provided with three kinds of software respectively corresponding to the printing apparatus, copying machine and the facsimile machine, and the composite apparatus is operated as the printing apparatus, the copying machine, the scanner or the facsimile machine by switching the kind of software.
In the conventional composite apparatus, the software, including the general purpose operating system (OS), is provided independently within the composite apparatus for the functions of each of the printing apparatus, the copying machine, the scanner and the facsimile machine. For this reason, it takes considerable time to develop the software for each of the printing apparatus, the copying machine, the scanner and the facsimile machine.
Accordingly, an image forming apparatus having a platform was proposed in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-82806. The proposed image forming apparatus uses hardware resources such as the display section, the printing section and the image pickup section, and is provided with a plurality of application programs (hereinafter simply referred to as applications) for carrying out processes peculiar to each user service of the printing apparatus, the copying machine and the facsimile machine. The platform is interposed between the applications and the hardware resources. The platform includes various control services for managing the hardware resources which are commonly required by at least two applications, controlling execution and carrying out an image forming process, when providing the user service. The user service refers to a service which is related to the image forming apparatus and is provided with respect to the user. On the other hand, the control service refers to a service which provides a hardware resource related to the image forming process with respect to the application.
According to the proposed image forming apparatus, the platform manages the hardware resources which are commonly required by at least two applications, controls the execution and carries out the image forming process. Hence, it is possible to efficiently develop the software, and to improve the productivity of the apparatus as a whole.
In the composite apparatus such as the proposed image forming apparatus, programs such as the plurality of applications and the plurality of control services forming the platform are installed in a read only memory (ROM) such as a flash memory on a controller board of the composite apparatus when the composite apparatus is forwarded. For this reason, when a design modification is made or a new function is added to the composite apparatus, the programs such as the applications and the control services must be updated (or rewritten) by updating the programs stored in the ROM.
For example, program updating methods are proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No. 9-134307 and No. 2002-99441. In addition, another program updating method stores updating data for each program, and updating programs for updating the existing programs such as the applications and the control services using the updating data, in an updating recording medium such as a flash card which is provided independently for each model of the composite apparatus.
The updating recording medium is selected depending on the model of the composite apparatus which is installed with the target program which is to be updated, and the power of the composite apparatus is turned ON in a state where the selected updating recording medium is inserted into a recording medium control unit of the composite apparatus.
The updating program stored in the updating recording medium is started by a boot loader of the composite apparatus. The updating data stored in the updating recording medium is read by the updating program, and the updating data is used to update (or rewrite) the programs such as the applications and the control services stored in the ROM.
The process of starting the updating program stored in the updating recording medium by the boot loader when the power of the composite apparatus is turned ON is carried out in the following manner. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing memory maps of the flash memory and the flash card when turning ON the power of the composite apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 1, the region of the flash memory on the controller board and the region of the updating recording medium are switched by switching ON and OFF states of a DIP switch which is provided on the controller board.
Measures are taken so that a boot vector indicates a normal start program of the flash memory when the DIP switch is OFF, and the updating program of the updating recording medium is arranged at the boot vector when the DIP switch is ON. Accordingly, the updating program arranged at the boot vector is started when updating the program by turning ON the DIP switch and turning ON the power of the composite apparatus.
The composite apparatus provides composite services including services of the copying machine, the printing machine, the scanner and the facsimile machine. However, the services that can be provided by the composite apparatus is not unified for all of the models of the composite apparatus. For example, some models of the composite apparatus may have all of the functions of the copying machine, the printing machine, the scanner and the facsimile machine, while other models may only have some of the functions such as the facsimile and copy functions. For this reason, the plurality of control services and the plurality of applications operating on the general purpose operating system (OS) naturally differ depending on the functions that may be provided by the composite apparatus.
But according to the program updating methods proposed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No. 9-134307 and No. 2002-99441, there is a problem in that the programs cannot be updated depending on the configuration of the composite apparatus.
In addition, according to the proposed program updating methods for the composite apparatus described above, when the updating recording medium is inserted into the composite apparatus and the power of the composite apparatus is turned ON, the updating program is executed immediately without starting the applications, the control services and the general purpose operating system (OS). Consequently, it is impossible to recognize the configuration of the composite apparatus, and there is a problem in that the programs cannot be updated depending on the configuration of the composite apparatus.
For example, assume that a certain composite apparatus has a configuration such that no programs related to the facsimile communication, such as the facsimile application and the facsimile control service, are provided. If the program updating process is carried out with respect to this certain composite apparatus using the updating recording medium which stores the updating data for all programs, there is a possibility that a program within the ROM which does not need to be updated is updated by the program updating process. In this case, the updating of the program which does not need to be updated may generate a failure in the composite apparatus.
Moreover, according to the proposed program updating methods for the composite apparatus, the updating recording medium stores the updating programs in addition to the updating data. Hence, the updating recording medium such as the flash card must be prepared for each model of the composite apparatus which requires updating of the programs, due to limited storage capacity of the updating recording medium.
For this reason, the updating recording media must be managed for each of the models of the composite apparatus, and care must be taken so that the updating recording medium intended for a different model of the composite apparatus will not be selected when updating the programs of the composite apparatus. As a result, there is a problem in that the operation of updating the programs of the composite apparatus is troublesome to perform.
Furthermore, according to the proposed program updating methods for the composite apparatus, the power of the composite apparatus must be turned ON after switching the DIP switch to the ON state. Thus, in a case where the DIP switch is provided within the main body of the composite apparatus, it is necessary for a person such as the user to remove a cover of the main body and to pull out the controller board. When performing such an operation, the person may touch the controller board and cause damage to the controller board.